Bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus

ABSTRACT

A bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus includes a housing trough, a sitting portion and an ancillary support installed on the housing trough. The housing trough has a surrounding wall, a bottom surface and an opening remote from the bottom surface. The sitting portion is connected to the bottom surface. The ancillary support has a plurality of connection posts fastening to the housing trough, at least one holding rack connecting vertically to the connection posts and at least one exercise rack connecting to the holding rack and straddling the opening. The apparatus provides a private aquatic exercise environment to allow a user to do exercises or stretching movements via the ancillary support installed on the housing trough to make user&#39;s body stronger or provide muscle rehabilitation therapy.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an aquatic exercise equipment and particularly to a bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Aquatic therapy is a technique to relax user's body or provide muscle therapy. These days SPA is very popular that aims to stimulate blood circulation of users via warm water and improve metabolism. Some use the pressure of ejecting water to thrust selected portions of user's body to massage the muscles. Aquatic rehabilitation is another type of aquatic therapy. For instance, swimming is generally deemed a desirable exercise that can enhance muscle control and resilience. Swimming, incorporating with respiration in the water, can thrust user's body moving in the water to train coordination capability of the body. Clinical reports show that the buoyancy in the water can facilitate various types of rehabilitation without much stress and alleviate undesirable effects on other portions of the body. However, not everyone can swim. Moreover, for people who are undergoing rehabilitation from serious muscle injury, swimming is too difficult and not very practical.

In addition, swimming pools generally are open to public and accessible by many people. For people who are undergoing rehabilitation, swimming in such locations creates unnecessary exposure and could cause mental uneasiness and result in ill effect to rehabilitation, thus make people in need reluctant to do rehabilitation in the swimming pool. Furthermore, rehabilitative exercises doable in the swimming pool are limited and confined by the site, and special equipments or facilities cannot be deployed as desired to meet users' requirements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the present invention is to solve the problems of aquatic rehabilitation and exercises that are inconvenient and deficient in privacy.

To achieve the foregoing object, the present invention provides a bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus that includes a housing trough, a sitting portion and an ancillary support installed on the housing trough. The housing trough has a surrounding wall, a bottom surface and an opening remote from the bottom surface. The sitting portion is connected to the bottom surface. The ancillary support has a plurality of connection posts fastening to the housing trough, at least one holding rack connecting vertically to the connection posts and at least one exercise rack connecting to the holding rack and straddling the opening.

By means of the structure set forth above, the ancillary support installed on the housing trough allows users to do stretching exercise, muscle strengthening exercise or aquatic rehabilitation therapy in the water. The invention also is adaptable to bathtubs in general houses, and is easy to install and convenient to use, and also provides improved privacy.

The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the first embodiment of the invention in a use condition.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the first embodiment of the invention in another use condition.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5A is an exploded view of a third embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5B is a fragmentary enlarged view of the third embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a fourth embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIG. 1, the present invention provides a bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus that includes a housing trough 10, a sitting portion 20 and an ancillary support 30 installed on the housing trough 10. The housing trough 10 has a surrounding wall 11, a bottom surface 12 and an opening 13 remote from the bottom surface 12. In this embodiment, the housing trough 10 is formed in a square shape. The surrounding wall 11 has two first holding walls 111 opposing each other and two second holding walls 112 perpendicular to the first holding walls 111. Since the housing trough 10 is rectangular in the drawing, the first holding walls 111 can be formed at a length greater than the second holding walls 112. The second holding walls 112 also can be respectively defined as an entry holding wall 112 a and a closed holding wall 112 b. The invention also includes a step portion 40 at one side of the entry holding wall 112 a remote from the closed holding wall 112 b to facilitate entry into the housing trough 10. The sitting portion 20 is connected to the bottom surface 12 for sitting of a user 50 after having entered the housing trough 10 to prevent uncomfortable feeling of the user 50 that might occur resulting from too deep of water after sitting down. In this embodiment, the sitting portion 20 is located at one side of the entry holding wall 112 a facing the closed holding wall 112 b.

The ancillary support 30 includes a plurality of connection posts 31 fastening to the housing trough 10, at least one holding rack 32 connecting vertically to the connection posts 31 and at least one exercise rack 33 connecting to the holding rack 32 and straddling the opening 13. In this embodiment, the housing trough 10 is formed in a square shape. The connection posts 31 are positioned and fastened to the junctions of the closed holding wall 112 b and first holding wall 111, and on the step portion 40. The holding rack 32 is located at one end of the connection posts 31 remote from the housing trough 10 and connected vertically to the connection posts 31. The holding rack 32 includes two first holding racks 321 and one second holding rack 322. The first holding racks 321 are parallel with the first holding wall 111 and located at two ends of the second holding wall 112. The exercise rack 33 straddles the opening 13 to connect vertically to the two first holding racks 321. Thereby, user 50 in the housing trough 10 can do exercises, stretching and rehabilitation activities through the exercise rack 33. The second holding rack 322 is parallel with the closed holding wall 112 b. Through the holding rack 32, the structural strength of the entire ancillary support 30 can be enhanced to avoid damage. It is to be noted that the height of the connection posts 31 fastening to the housing trough 10 can be changed to adjust the holding rack 32 and exercise rack 33.

Please refer to FIG. 2, the user 50 can use the ancillary support 30 to do stretching, exercises and rehabilitation activities in the housing trough 10, such as doing stretching exercise with two feet stepping on the bottom surface 12 while grasping the exercise rack 33 with two hands, incorporating with the warm water in the housing trough 10, metabolism improves. Also referring to FIG. 3, as the sitting portion 20 is located at one side of the entry holding wall 112 a facing the closed holding wall 112 b, when the user 50 sits on the sitting portion 20 and grasps upwards the exercise rack 33 with the two hands to do stretching or other exercises. Due to buoyancy of the water the up and down movement can be done easier, and because of water resistance exercise can be done with more desirable efficacy. To meet the requirements of exercises previous discussed, the bottom surface 12 is preferably spaced from the opening 13 between 50 and 120 cm, and the exercise rack 33 is spaced from the opening 13 between 10 and 100 cm, thereby the user 50 can either stand on the bottom surface 12 with the hands grasping the exercise rack 33 to do exercises, or sit on the sitting portion 20 with the two hands extended upward to grasp the exercise rack 33 to do stretching and exercises.

Referring to FIG. 4, the exercise rack 33 includes two first holding racks 321 at two ends each having a position adjustment portion 331 located thereon to allow the exercise rack 33 to move parallel with the direction of the first holding rack 321 and anchor. Thus the user 50 can choose to slide the exercise rack 33 to a desired location to do different types of stretching, exercises or rehabilitation activities. Also referring to FIGS. 5A and 5B, the first holding rack 321 may have a plurality of apertures 70 formed thereon, and the exercise rack 33 has a coupling section 332 at each of two ends to run through the apertures 70 to be held on the first holding rack 321. Through adjusting coupling of the exercise rack 33 with different apertures 70, the position of the exercise rack 33 can also be adjusted as desired. In addition, the exercise rack 33 may further include a bend portion 333 connecting to the coupling section 332 that can be bent for 90 degrees to prevent the exercise rack 33 from escaping the aperture 70 after the coupling section 332 has run through the aperture 70. Referring to FIG. 6, in order to fit varying spatial designs in different houses, a cavity 14 may be excavated on the floor 60 to form the housing trough 10 a, and then the housing trough 10 a is processed to form the entry holding wall 112 a, closed holding wall 112 b and step portion 40 a, while the sitting portion 20 a and bottom surface 12 a are also formed on the floor 60 by excavation. Thereby the total size of the housing trough 10 a remains unchanged, but its elevation relative to the floor 60 can be reduced to lower the total height.

The invention may further be incorporated with resilient facilities and buoyant articles to further enhance stretching of user's body and perform muscle exercises. The buoyant articles can aid upward floating of the user while using the exercise rack 33. On the other hand, through the exercise rack 33, resistance can be generated against a downward pressure while the user is sinking to aid exercise.

As a conclusion, by installing the ancillary support 30 on the housing trough 10 or 10 a, the user 50 can do stretching, exercises and rehabilitation activities in the water, thus the invention is adaptable to the bathtubs used in the general houses, and also is easy to install and use and provides improved privacy. In addition, through the sitting portion 20 or 20 a and the position adjustment portion 331, the location of the exercise rack 33 can be adjusted to better meet user's requirements. It provides significant improvements over the conventional techniques.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus, comprising: a housing trough including a surrounding wall, a bottom surface and an opening remote from the bottom surface; a sitting portion connecting to the bottom surface; and an ancillary support which is installed on the housing trough and includes a plurality of connection posts fastening to the housing trough, at least one holding rack connecting vertically to the plurality of connection posts and at least one exercise rack connecting to the holding rack and straddling the opening.
 2. The bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus of claim 1, wherein the bottom surface of the housing trough is spaced from the opening at a distance ranged from 70 cm to 150 cm.
 3. The bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus of claim 1, wherein the exercise rack is spaced from the opening at a distance ranged from 10 cm to 100 cm.
 4. The bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus of claim 1, wherein the housing trough is formed in a square shape and includes two first holding walls opposing each other and two second holding walls perpendicular to the two first holding walls, the holding rack including two first holding racks parallel with the first holding walls, the exercise rack connecting vertically to the two first holding racks.
 5. The bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus of claim 4, wherein the exercise rack includes two position adjustment portions at two ends thereof respectively located on the first holding rack.
 6. The bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus of claim 4, wherein the two second holding walls are respectively an entry holding wall and a closed holding wall.
 7. The bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus of claim 6, wherein the holding rack includes a second holding rack parallel with and opposing to the closed holding wall.
 8. The bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus of claim 6 further including a step portion located at one side of the entry holding wall remote from the closed holding wall.
 9. The bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus of claim 8, wherein the connection posts are fastened to the step portion and the closed holding wall.
 10. The bathtub exercise auxiliary apparatus of claim 6, wherein the sitting portion is located at one side of the entry holding wall facing the closed holding wall. 